Akash Sama­roo

Lead Ed­i­tor–Pol­i­tics

akash.sama­roo@cnc3.co.tt

Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar has ac­cused crit­ics of her Gov­ern­ment’s an­ti-crime cam­paign of de­lib­er­ate­ly at­tempt­ing to in­flame ten­sions be­tween Trinidad and To­ba­go’s two ma­jor eth­nic groups, as part of what she de­scribed as a broad­er ef­fort to un­der­mine the coun­try’s pro­tec­tive ser­vices.

In a state­ment on so­cial me­dia yes­ter­day, Per­sad-Bisses­sar al­leged that those who had ben­e­fit­ed from crim­i­nal­i­ty had “spread false nar­ra­tives to stoke ha­tred be­tween the two ma­jor eth­nic groups” while at­tack­ing the coun­try’s pro­tec­tive ser­vices and the Unit­ed States for sup­port­ing T&T’s crime-fight­ing ef­forts.

She al­so ac­cused so­cial me­dia trolls, de­ranged com­men­ta­tors, race grifters and main­stream me­dia of par­tic­i­pat­ing in those at­tacks.

The Prime Min­is­ter claimed the in­crease in Amer­i­can sup­port for T&T’s pro­tec­tive ser­vices, which she said be­gan last year, had un­set­tled in­di­vid­u­als who had amassed wealth and in­flu­ence through crim­i­nal ac­tiv­i­ty.

“Since the in­crease in Amer­i­can sup­port to our pro­tec­tive ser­vices be­gan last year, we have wit­nessed a height­ened un­ease and furor among those who have built their wealth and so­cial sta­tus by up­hold­ing il­le­gal­i­ty and crim­i­nal­i­ty,” the PM wrote.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar ar­gued that de­spite sus­tained crit­i­cism from what she de­scribed as crim­i­nal in­ter­ests and their agents with­in the le­gal pro­fes­sion, busi­ness com­mu­ni­ty and me­dia, mem­bers of the Po­lice Ser­vice, De­fence Force, Strate­gic Ser­vices Agency (SSA) and Prison Ser­vice had re­mained com­mit­ted to their du­ties.

She cred­it­ed the pro­tec­tive ser­vices with help­ing to re­duce se­ri­ous crime by 15 per cent dur­ing 2026 and thanked of­fi­cers for car­ry­ing out their re­spon­si­bil­i­ties “of­ten un­der im­mense pres­sure and un­fair crit­i­cisms.”

The Prime Min­is­ter ex­pressed grat­i­tude to Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice Al­lis­ter Gue­var­ro, SSA di­rec­tor Ali­cia Hen­ry, Chief of De­fence Staff Com­modore Don Po­lo and act­ing Prison Ser­vice Com­mis­sion­er Elvin Scant­er­bury, say­ing she re­mained con­fi­dent in their lead­er­ship and their shared com­mit­ment to tack­ling crime.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar al­so vowed that Gov­ern­ment would con­tin­ue work­ing with its in­ter­na­tion­al part­ners to dis­man­tle the coun­try’s “lo­cal drug mafia.”

“For too long, this coun­try has ac­cept­ed a tiered jus­tice sys­tem in which dif­fer­ent rules, con­di­tions and treat­ment ap­ply to per­sons and groups in so­ci­ety based on in­come lev­els, eth­nic­i­ty, where they live and who they fund,” Per­sad-Bisses­sar said.

“That time has come to an end. No one’s wealth or so­cial sta­tus will put them above the law.”